Clean and Simple Kate's Snowflake Christmas cards

Hi blogging friends

Today I am sharing some Clean and Simple Christmas cards using my favourite snowflake die:  Kate's Snowflake by Simon Says Stamp and a new embossing folder I picked up at a Craft Show in October.

These cards are also my entry for the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - November - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz Challenge #255 - Christmas is coming

The embossing folder is by Nellie Snellen - Christmas Round and was just the right size for the snowflake die to fit inside - yay!

On Jennifer Maguire's blog, I had seen Jennifer diecut things then heat-emboss them and thought I would give it a try - and it worked really, really well.

For the gold snowflake:  I smooched the diecut snowflake very thoroughly with Versamark Watermark ink and poured on Ranger fine detail Gold embossing powder and picked it up very carefully with my closed-point tweezers and heat-set it.  As soon as the powder melted I poured on a 2nd coat of embossing powder and heat-set it.  You really do need two coats of the embossing powder to get really smooth coverage - one just doesn't look as good:

For the silver snowflake:  I used the same ink and did two coats of Ranger fine detail Silver embossing powder:

For the teal snowflake:  I inked the diecut with Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink and did two coats of Polysparkle clear embossing powder:

I adhered the snowflakes to my white cardstock using Tombow Mono Multi glue which gave me a little bit of time to line up the points perfectly.  I cleaned up any stray bits of glue using my Xyron adhesive eraser.

I have also seen on Jennifer Maguire's blog how Jennifer had made matching embossed edges to her embossed diecuts so I did this same technique for the bottom matching borders.  All you have to do is take a scrap of white cardstock and apply the same ink that you use for your diecuts to one edge and heat-set with two coats of embossing powder then trimmed it to size.  Simple and quick!  I attached mine to the card base using doublesided tape. 

I tied on the twine/ribbon and added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying.  I glued the tails down with Tombow Mono Multi glue to hold them in place because they kept blowing in the wind when I was trying to photograph them! 

Lastly, I added rhinestones to the snowflake centres.  The gold gem came on a sheet of different coloured rhinestones from Bellbird Paper Arts which cost about $2.50 (Bellbird Paper Arts are located in Blackburn, Victoria).  The silver and teal rhinestones are by Kaisercraft.  I couldn't figure out where to put a sentiment so left it off.

Please note it is REALLY hard to photograph silver and gold so the snowflakes look a bit brighter in real life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Teal Snowflake -

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Kate's Snowflake SSSD111309

Accessories:  Big Shot, Nellie Snellen Christmas Round-1 EFE003 embossing folder, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Polysparkle embossing powder, heat-gun, Fray Stop, blue sparkle ribbon, Kaisercraft Ice Blue rhinestone (SB774) white cardstock

Gold Snowflake -

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Kate's Snowflake SSSD111309

Accessories:  Big Shot, Nellie Snellen Christmas Round-1 EFE003 embossing folder, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fray Stop, gold cord, Gold gem (Bellbird Paper Arts), heat-gun, Ranger fine detail Gold embossing powder, white cardstock

Silver Snowflake -

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Kate's Snowflake SSSD111309

Accessories:  Big Shot, Nellie Snellen Christmas Round-1 EFE003 embossing folder, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fray Stop, silver cord, Kaisercraft Silver rhinestone, heat-gun, Ranger fine detail Silver embossing powder, white cardstock

Just-Rite Christmas Treasures Fan Club Christmas Challenge

Hi blogging friends

Thank you for your kind 'Get Well' messages from my last post.  My cold is lingering on and on but hopefully it will start to improve soon.  My loved one is still sick too but they feel quite a bit better than a few days ago and their cough is certainly not as yucky so the antibiotics seem to be working.

Today, I am sharing a Christmas card which I made for the Splitcoaststampers Christmas Fan Club Challenge for July and the theme is "All about the Sentiment".  I have hardly made any Christmas cards this year.  I had originally planned to make a card each month for the Christmas Fan Club Challenge but just wasn't "feeling it" until now.  I have to be in-the-mood for Christmas cardmaking and if I try and force myself to make one when I don't want to, I usually end up with a messy Craft Room and very little to show for it.  

The dry embossing is a Nellie Snellen Christmas Square-1 EFE004 embossing folder.  The sentiment and border is from an old Just-Rite Christmas Treasures set (which uses their own 3-1/4" round stamper) and was stamped using Versamark Watermark ink and heat-embossed using Ranger Silver superfine embossing powder.  I really love how you can see such fine detail with this embossing powder.

After I attached the main panel to the card, I thought that the panel needed something more so decided to cut a silver glitter cardstock border using my Lifestyle Nesting Circles and the Magnetic platform in my Big Shot.  The magnetic platform makes it so easy to cut a border this way because you can lay the dies exactly where you want them and they don't move in the machine.  I glued down the silver circle using Tombow Mono Multi glue.

I used my Perfect Layers Tools to trim a 1/16" border around the silver cardstock base (LOVE these tools - they make crafting so much easier!).  By the way, I attached the silver glitter cardstock to the white cardstock using Ranger Wonder Tape.  Doublesided tape, in my experience, just doesn't work for attaching glitter cardstock - it isn't strong enough.

Lastly, I added silver rhinestones.  Finished size is 5-1/8" x 5-1/8".

Challenges:

Apart from the SCS Fan Club Challenge, I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything goes - with the optional extra of doing something for Christmas in July

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - July - Anything Goes 

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #183 - Let's get Sentimental

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today.

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Just-Rite Christmas Treasures (sentiment and border)

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Accessories:  Just-Rite 3-1/4" round stamper, Big Shot, Big Shot magnetic platform, Ranger Silver superfine embossing powder, heat-gun, Perfect Layers Tools, Lifestyle Nesting Circle dies, Nellie Snellen Christmas Square-1 EFE004 embossing folder, Ranger Wonder Tape, Tombow Mono Multi glue, Papermania adhesive stones Silver PMA351103, cardstock - silver glitter, white

JustRite Christmas Treasures card

Hi blogging friends

I had totally forgotten about some JustRite stamps that I bought a couple of years ago as I had put them in a folder and they were up on the shelf with some other totally unrelated folders - out-of-sight, out-of-mind!  Anyway, I thought I should drag them out and put them to use.  JustRite Stamps originally had their own wood blocks in various sizes and the size that I used was a 3-1/4" round block.  These stamps are still around here and there - and I saw the set that I have on Frantic Stamper's website (I have never bought from them so can't recommend them).

I (again), went for a clean and simple Christmas card as the silver version is for my Mum - the gold version is for myself:

I stamped the 3 Wise Men and sentiment onto the white cardstock using Versamark Watermark ink and heat-set it using Ranger silver detail embossing powder - and diecut them using my Big Shot and Lifestyle Circle dies.  The outer circle is up on dimensionals.

The dry embossing is a Nellie Snellen Christmas Square embossing folder which I really love.  To finish off, I added 4 silver rhinestones.  Finished size is 5 inches square or 127 millimetres.

And now the gold version:

I decided to add a gold glitter cardstock layer plus another white layer as I didn't have any gold rhinestones/pearls for embellishing (do they make them as I have never seen any?!) and the card just didn't look finished - there was something missing.  I trimmed the gold layer to 1/8" using my Perfect Layers Tools and the white layer to 1/16".

The image and sentiment were stamped with Versamark Watermark ink and heat-set using Ranger gold detail embossing powder.  The outer circle is up on dimensionals.  Finished size is 5-3/8" square or 136mm.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Splitcoaststampers Free for All F4A199 Christmas Carols - make a project inspired by a Christmas song (or anything holiday and musical), song lyrics, instruments, red nosed reindeer etc.  My cards are inspired by the Christmas Carol:  We 3 Kings of Orient are.

CAS on Friday Challenge #23 - Christmas

Crafty Catz Challenge #211 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! 

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Card #1 -

Stamps:  JustRite Christmas Treasures set - 3-1/4" diameter

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Accessories:  Big Shot, Lifestyle Circle dies, dimensionals, Nellie Snellen Christmas Square-1 EFE004 embossing folder, Ranger silver detail embossing powder, heat-gun, cardstock - white (Paper Mill), Kaisercraft Silver rhinestones, JustRite 3-1/4" diameter wood block

Card #2 -

Stamps:  JustRite Christmas Treasures set - 3-1/4" diameter

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Accessories:  Big Shot, Lifestyle Circles dies, dimensionals, Nellie Snellen Christmas Square-1 EFE004 embossing folder, Ranger gold detail embossing powder, heat-gun, JustRite 3-1/4" diameter wood block, Perfect Layers Tools, cardstock - white (Paper Mill), gold glitter